


Episode 65: How's it gonna be...

by PitoyaPTx



Series: Clan Meso'a [65]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Mandalorian, Mandalorian Clan, Mandalorian Culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26654920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PitoyaPTx/pseuds/PitoyaPTx
Summary: "I won't die like you." ~?A face off centuries in the making or a misunderstanding with disastrous results?
Series: Clan Meso'a [65]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1261364
Kudos: 1





	Episode 65: How's it gonna be...

Anhari and Aviila were staring right at each other, though neither could tell from this distance. Seru had moved to the gunner’s console; Jecho and Cara strapped into the crew chairs and braced for combat.  
“I’ve.. I’ve never,” Cara whimpered, fear causing her to shake as she clutched the safety harness, “Are we going to die?”  
Neither companion answered, Jecho out of uncertainty and Aviila’s attention trained on the other vessel. They’d been jammed, but it was a matter of time before Teno’kaan sent for Aran and his crew. Protocol was to wait it out and disengage when an opportunity presented itself, especially when another clan is involved. The Ordo were due at any moment, so if things went south maybe they’d intervene… but something in Aviila knew she couldn’t take that chance. Plus, she wasn’t about to let another Clan, especially the Ordo, fight her battles. A part of her felt a twinge of guilt having learned that these particular Ordo meant a lot to both Jecho and Cara. She hadn’t forgotten Dendona’s holo that Cara tried to run away in order to contact them. Once again, that empty feeling crept into her chest. She didn’t want to let Cara go. Sure she wasn’t fit to be a warrior, and if she joined the Chibala Aviila would probably have to relocate to the north, but she’d vowed to retire when she returned to the clan. Isn’t that why I told the Ordo I was Vin’haria’n, she thought to herself. Her rich internal struggle wasn’t enough to dull her senses. If the other ship lurched even a hair, she would already be maneuvering the ship into a more favorable position. For the moment, it was best to stay put.  
“That’s four in total,” said Seru, counting what exterior weapons he could make out on the enemy craft.  
“We can take that,” said Anhari with a dismissive wave, “What I’m not too keen on is getting close to the front of it.”  
“Why?”  
“That nose cone, I can just see seams on it.”  
Seru pulled out a small set of binoculars from a side pouch.  
“Ah yeah, I see them. What does that mean?”  
She shrugged, “I just don’t like it.”  
“Think it’ll come off?”  
“Maybe.”  
“I can shoot it off.”  
Anhari laughed, “I’ll give you his breastplate and a thousand credits if you shoot it off.”  
“It’s a deal!” 

“Aviila we need to find a way to contact them,” Jecho reasoned, “They-”  
“No,” said Aviila with a kind of finality that made Jecho’s anxieties worsen.  
“But-”  
“I said, no!” she growled.  
“Aviila please-”  
Aviila looked over her shoulder at the other Twi’lek, “We wait,” she asserted, “Aran and Etima are only a jump away and by now Teno’kaan would have sent for them.”  
“But what if-”  
“We have protocol for this, Jecho, now sit tight and-”  
A bolt of light whizzed by the port side of the ship and slammed into the bow of the other vessel. As it passed, the ship rumbled again, shaking just enough to rattle the crates stacked in the adjacent room.  
“Where did that,” Jecho was saying, but her words turned into a panicked shriek as the other ship launched into its assault.  
Aviila gritted her teeth and forced the ship onto its side before the volley of bolts hit the front deflector shields. Cara screamed and held onto the harness for dear life as the ship did a full 360 into a sharp dive below the plane of the other vessel.  
“Oh no you don’t!” Anhari forced her ship to follow them, Seru locking both frontal cannons onto the starboard dorsal wing and its turbine where he saw the shot originate from.  
“I didn’t fire that!” Aviila shouted as the ships passed, the dorsal fin taking a few shots but being otherwise protected by the shield. Jecho braced as the explosive rounds rocked the ship, and Cara had devolved into tears.  
“Aviila!” she whimpered.  
“It’s fine, Cara-”  
“We have to disengage!” shouted Jecho.  
“I know that!” Aviila snarled back, “But if you hadn’t noticed-”  
Something collided with the port side of the ship as they leveled off above the other vessel. Both Aviila and Jecho trained on the port-side view of the cockpit window, but saw nothing.  
“What the-”  
The ship lurched as another volley hit the stern. Aviila tried to drop the ship into another dive, but the other vessel followed, peppering it as she tried to shake them. She rolled the ship to the left and dropped two planes, but to no avail. The other ship was fast.  
“That hunk of junk is as good as ours,” Anhari laughed, “Hit it again!”  
Seru launched another round from the front cannons, this time clipping off the wingtip of the starboard fin. He howled in triumph as smoke began billowing out of the damage wing.  
“Aviila!” Jecho shouted again.  
“I know!”  
“No, just,” Jecho unclipped her harness and dove for the co-pilot’s seat. She grabbed onto it, bracing as Aviila sent the ship into another sharp turn to avid their attackers.  
“What are, stop!” she shouted as Jecho grabbed onto the steering cradle and jerked backwards on it.  
Cara screamed again as the ship went into a steep ascent. Crates tumbled down the hall and crashed into the railing on the other side of the holotable.  
“Jecho!” Aviila shouted, about to shoulder her out of the way when the Twi’lek slammed three successive keyes between spread fingers.  
“I’ve got-kriff!” Anhari shouted as high above them their prey let off a fan of chaff flares like bioluminescent wings expanding from the body of the ship. Momentarily blinded, she rolled the ship out of the flare’s path and leveled off perpendicular but two planes below their target.  
“What in Kad’s name-”  
“Over there!” Seru shouted, pointing out into the darkness.  
A few of the flares had...landed on something and were just about to wink out when Seru spotted them. Anhari blinked.  
“Buir, that’s...,” he began, feeling as though the air was being sucked out of his lungs, “We’re not alone out here.”  
“Jecho I swear if you-”  
“Look!” she forced Aviila’s helmet to the side and pointed to where several of the flares had coalesced in a group, “Aviila there’s something out there!”  
It was as though Aviila’s mind couldn’t figure out exactly what she was looking at. On the surface, it seemed like the flares were hovering in place maybe 100yrds away, winking out one by one...but-  
“I..” she stammered, “That’s-”  
“They could have lured us into a trap,” Seru argued, “Buir, they didn’t fire back at all.”  
“I know,” she said, now trying to weigh her options as quickly as possible, “And I don’t like these odds, not without backup.”  
“Should we head back?”  
“No, but we need to get out of jamming range,” she decided, checking both deflector shields, “Watch our six, we-”  
From the darkness, a large bolt slammed into them, pushing the ship backwards. Anhari swore and gripped the console as the ship was jostled. That didn’t come from a ship their size.  
“Brace!” she shouted as another shot headed their way.  
She tried turning the ship and going into a dive to miss it, but the oncoming fire was too fast. Instead of hitting them straight on, it slammed into the top plating at an angle and caused them to jerk to the side.  
“No offense, riduur,” Anhari gritted her teeth, trying to keep control of the ship, “But I will not go out like you!”  
The stars themselves seemed to open up as both crews began a fight for their lives.  
“The escape pod!” Aviila ordered, “Jecho, Cara, go!”  
“But-” Cara began to protest. Jecho tried to undo her harness as Aviila dropped into another round of evasive maneuvers.  
“I said go!” she shouted again, bracing as the port side took a wallop and the ship’s movements became erratic. Aviila’s volley of curses were only intensified when the port side dorsal fin spun out in front of them and disappeared into the darkness. Her diagnostic screen showed the turbine as still attached, but for how much longer?  
“I’ll level off,” she called over her shoulder, “but not for long, so you have to run.”  
“Aviila-”  
“Cara, please, just go!”  
Had it been up to Cara, she would have grabbed Aviila’s arm and dragged her along with them, but free of her harness she was at the mercy of the ship’s internal gravity. She and Jecho fell forward and slid down the hallway, crashing into the crates now piled up against the holotable. Jecho took the brunt of the collision and let out a pained groan; Cara another scream as the ship lurched again and a loose crate flew overhead, bouncing off the wall in front to their right. Jecho struggled to her feet and pulled Cara up with her, just in time for the ship to jerk again. Cara lost her footing and slid towards the wall as the same crate slid across the floor and nearly flattened her. Jecho grabbed for any hand hold she could get on the holotable, but slipped just as the ship went into a dive. The crate slid off of Cara, but she was too terrified to move. Between her arms clenched tightly over her face, she could just see the place where Jecho should have been. Panic hit her like the crate had and she scrambled to her feet just as Jecho’s face appeared on the other side of the wall. She was holding onto it and trying to push herself forward but the floor was at too steep of a slant for her to make any progress.  
“The escape pod!” she shouted to Cara, “I’m right behind you!”  
Cara shook her head, now flattened against the wall as the ship continued to dive, “Don’t make me!” she pleaded.  
“Cara-”  
Aviila was forced to level out when the starboard fin spun free into the void. Cara careened over the ladder and tumbled across the atrium and into the cargo bay door. Above her, three crates fell over the railing and slid towards her. She launched into a mad scramble to avoid them and just managed to as the third hit the wall where her legs had been. Instinctively, she tucked into a ball, her sobbing becoming a desperate string of barely intelligible pleading, some directed at Aviila and Jecho, but a few for Dovin, for her father, her mother, even Beon and Fent. Aviila’s breathing was just short of hyperventilation as she fought to keep her focus on the invisible assailants and not on her comrades being thrown about behind her. She’d just managed to level out the ship again when she’d heard Cara making more noise than what Aviila felt comfortable ignoring. Against her instincts she turned in the chair and felt her throat tighten. She gripped the arms of her chair, ignoring the claxons telling her another shot was incoming.  
“Cara?” she shouted over the din.  
A whimper echoed up from below.  
“Do you see the pod?”  
Cara hazarded a shaky glance up from her arms. The escape pod was a few feet away against the starboard wall.  
“Get inside!” Aviila ordered, quickly punching in the remote access command.  
Cara startled as the door slid open with a loud, hydraulic hiss.  
“B-b-but,” she stammered, her lips numb, “J-Jecho?”  
“Get in!” Aviila shouted desperately.  
Impact was imminent and if Cara wasn’t inside… She cursed and turned back to the display, rerouting whatever was left of the deflector shield to the side where the projectile was coming from. If there was enough time.. A light flicked on to Aviila’s right. The pod’s occupancy sensor went off and she punched the ejection command so fast she cracked the screen.  
Cara was thrown forward again, this time head first into the back of the pod’s pilot seat. Her vision swam as did the contents of her stomach. Clutching her head, she pushed herself over onto her back and sat up.  
“No!” she screamed, launching herself at the door and slamming her fists into it as Aviila’s ship grew further and further away.  
She ignored the pain in her fists and the blood smeared on the viewport by her fingertips as she clawed, punched, slammed, and eventually kicked at the door, screaming herself hoarse and crying until her eyes stung too much to keep them open. 

Aviila sat still, rocking with the ship as the hull was shredded to bits. She’d closed off the cockpit and pressurized her suit as if any of that really mattered to her anymore. Sound felt muffled and her vision became disjointed swathes of color as though her body was forming a sensory barrier between herself and the outside world. Hollow booms echoed around her barely penetrating the mental fog closing in on her mind. It took every ounce of her self control not to reach for the holodisc she knew wasn’t there anymore, but oh how she wanted to. Her fingers practically itched for the desire to pull back the cover of her back pouch and fish out the last remnant of her friends. How she wanted to see them, how she’d wanted to fulfill her promise to avenge them, how she wouldn’t die just like them...She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, fogging up the inside of her helmet. 

Cara let out one last hoarse scream as the back half of Aviila’s ship was consumed in a ball of fire snuffed out once the vacuum of space took hold of the wreckage. Smoldering bits remained, but the majority of the debris was now charred hunks of metal shooting out at odd angles into the dark… much like the escape pod disappearing into the celestial abyss...


End file.
